Lendwise cut its expected default rate to 3.67 percent for 2025 and delivered 6.84 - a forecast miss that suggests the underwriting model was calibrated on a book too young to have been tested. Its accounts are unaudited small-company filings, so there is no auditor's view of the business. And no wind-down plan or back-up servicer is published, so what happens to an eight-year loan book if the platform fails is unstated beyond its own warning that recovery could then be very hard.

A missed payment puts a loan into arrears and triggers contact with the borrower; at 90 days past due (or earlier if repayment is clearly not coming) it is classed as defaulted, and collection passes to specialist agencies and, where necessary, the UK courts, with Lendwise acting for all lenders together. Borrowers in difficulty can be given extended timetables or payment holidays - which keeps some struggling loans out of the default count. What this machinery has delivered is the key number: 14 pence recovered per defaulted pound overall, and only 15 to 21 pence even on the oldest, most worked-out years.

Three ways, none fast. First, wait: loans repay over years, and because repayments usually start only after the course ends, a realistic full exit is six to eight years. Second, sell performing loans at face value for a 1 percent fee - but loans in arrears or default cannot be listed at all (12.45 percent of the current book), prices cannot be discounted to attract buyers, and no timing is promised. Third, withdraw freely any cash already repaid into your account. Closing an account entirely requires waiting for every loan in it to finish.

The main cost is a servicing fee taken as a slice of the interest each borrower pays, charged only when payments actually arrive - but the percentage is disclosed per loan, behind sign-up, so you cannot compute your net return in advance. Selling on the resale market costs the seller 1 percent; deposits, withdrawals and the ISA itself are free. Advertised rates are quoted before the fee. Independent analysis found the gap between what borrowers pay and lenders receive has widened from 2.5 to 6.3 percentage points - the platform's take has grown. Interest is taxable unless held in the ISA.

Lendwise underwrites people who mostly have no income yet, so the decision is a forecast of employability after study. Its scoring weighs the applicant's credit history and affordability, the loan size and length, and - unusually - the university tier and strength of the course being funded. Anyone with a county court judgment, bankruptcy or IVA is excluded. There are no risk grades: the whole book is reported to the regulator as a single risk category, so lenders cannot select by expected loss. One pattern worth knowing: independent analysis finds borrowers from outside the UK fall seriously behind at roughly twice the rate of UK borrowers, and you cannot filter for this.

There is no scandal: no FCA action, no press exposé, no insolvency markers, and - unusually for P2P - no complaints found about withdrawals. Trustpilot shows 4.6 out of 5 from 158 reviews, as reported in August 2026, though most reviewers are borrowers praising the application process, which says little about lender outcomes. The substantive criticism sits on an investor forum and in its own filings: defaults rising year after year and reaching almost double the platform's own 2025 forecast, experienced lenders quietly running their accounts down, a resale market that is hard to read, and fees that rank ahead of lender capital in the payment order. The adverse facts about Lendwise are arithmetic in its own published statistics, not misconduct.

Three co-founders run it: chief executive Rishi Zaveri (investment banking background, LSE), Ioannis Georgiou (ex Bank of Cyprus capital markets, CFA) and Kypros Mouzouros (chartered accountant, private equity CFO roles). The company was incorporated in November 2016, FCA-authorised in March 2018 and opened to lenders in May 2019. A fourth registered director, Dr Andreas Loizides, does not appear on the public team page. It is a small, single-entity firm whose 2025 accounts were filed unaudited under the small-company exemption.